hurt/comfort
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
A genre of fan fiction in which a character receives comfort from another after or while suffering injury, illness, or a traumatic experience.
Register: slang
Where it’s used:
Used
American English
Examples
Hurt/comfort stories often contain enough gore to send shivers down the back of activists concerned with the conflation of sex and violence.
Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).
Common questions
What does “hurt/comfort” mean?
A genre of fan fiction in which a character receives comfort from another after or while suffering injury, illness, or a traumatic experience.
Is “hurt/comfort” formal or informal?
hurt/comfort is generally slang.